Use of the Internet has grown significantly in recent years. People now access webpages over the Internet for a variety of reasons, such as to shop for items on a company's website or to read an individual's blog. As usage of the Internet has grown, the web presence of businesses and individuals has become more important.
Computers on the Internet identify each other using a numeric identifier known as an Internet Protocol (IP) address. For example, when a request for a webpage is sent from a computer to a web server hosting the webpage, the computer includes the IP address of the web server. However, an IP address consists of a long string of numbers that is difficult for humans to remember.
In order to make the identification of destination computers more user-friendly, a Domain Name System (DNS) has been developed that translates a unique alphanumeric character-based name for a destination computer into the IP address for the computer. This alphanumeric name is called a “domain name.” For example, by using domain names, a user can request a webpage on a web server by specifying “verisigninc.com” rather than the particular IP address of the web server (e.g., 198.41.1.40). Domain Name System (“DNS”) is the Internet's hierarchical lookup service for mapping character-based domain names into numerical IP addresses.
Domains exist at various different levels within the DNS hierarchy. For example, a top-level domain (TLD), such as “com” or “net,” is a domain at a high level in the DNS hierarchy. A second-level domain (SLD) is a subdomain of a TLD that is directly below the TLD in the DNS hierarchy. For example, “com” is the TLD and “example” is the SLD for the domain name “www.example.com.”
Domain names are obtained by registering an available domain name with a domain name registrar. A registrar for a TLD can assist customers in registering new domain names for that TLD (e.g., .com) and can perform the necessary actions so that DNS information for those domain names is stored in a manner accessible to name servers for that TLD. Registrars typically provide a website through which customers can register available domain names for a fee.
A distinctive, easy-to-remember domain name is an important part of a web presence for individuals and businesses. Unfortunately, there are currently a limited number of domain names, and many desirable domain names in the most popular TLDs (e.g., .com) have already been taken. Thus, it is difficult to identify desirable domain names that are available (unregistered), otherwise known as non-existent domains (NXDomains). Current domain name suggestion services accept one or more keywords as a query and list available domain names based on the query. If the customer does not find any of the listed domain names to be acceptable, he must try again with different keywords or at a later time.
Accordingly, an improved approach to identifying and suggesting available and desirable domain names is needed. The disclosed embodiments address one or more of the problems set forth above.